Food and Nutrition in the Society - Research Proposal Example

INFLUENCE OF ONLINE EDUCATIVE SITES ON FOOD AND NUTRITION AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON THE DIETARY CHOICES IN THE SOCIETY (Case study-Northern Territorians, Australia) Name Institution Course Date Table of Contents 1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………….. 3 2 Literature Review……………………………………………………………………………………… 3 3 Research Question……………………………………………………………………………………..5 4 Definitions of Key Concepts………………………………………………………………………….. 6 5 Research Design……………………………………………………………………………………….6 6 Study Participants and Sampling……………………………………………………………………..8 7 Ethics…………………………………………………………………………………………………… 8 8 Data Collection Methods………………………………………………………………………...…… 8 9 References…………………………………………………………………………………………….11 1. Introduction The research proposal investigates the contribution online sites that have information on the right food and nutrition has on the general members of the society such as the overweight, the sick and sports personalities. Therefore the research will take an in cite into the benefit the knowledge gained from this online site regarding healthy eating habits and how such knowledge influence the life of this people. The paper therefore will be subdivided into: literature review, research questions, Definition and Measurement of Key Concepts and Sub-questions, Research Design, Study Participants and Sampling, Ethics and Data Collection Methods. 2. Literature Review 2.1 Importance of online website on food and nutrition There is a rise in the modern use of technology global and more people are becoming aware of how to access information through online web addresses and search engine such as Google. The topics that are frequently accessed are widespread and food and nutrition related issues have not been left behind. The global concern over health issues especially in the western world has tremendously increased in the last few decades especially after the introduction of the genetically modified organic food came into play. And this resulted to many people being cautious of their health hence the urge to go online to look for relevant knowledge (eat for health, 2013). According to (Morgan, 2015) the internet revolutionised the information flow and ensured reliability in accessing information which is easy and faster .The information in the internet is much easy to access and are frequently updated hence the users get chance to access most recent information. At the same time the source can be confirmed fir reliability confirmation. In the United States, the research carried out by (Rosenstiel, Mitchell, Purcell & Rainie, 2011) indicated that 79% of the people used internet as source of both news and information. In a survey of 16 topics most researched, internet won in 15 of the topic surpassing the role played by the newspaper. Key among the topic was the food and nutrition which is important to the communities in the United State. 2.2 Food Food is important for any organism to stay alive and therefore human beings are no exception. However we need to understand the relationship of the content of what we eat and the need of our body.at the same time we need to consider relationship of what we eat and the healthy life we are expected to live. It is every society dream to have healthy members who can contribute positively to the society. Therefore the society has to be concerned about food and nutrition in respect to his people (food and nutrition information websites for teacher, 2011). Society consists of everyone and food and nutrition CONTRIBUTE positively to the life of any group of people. For example people who are HIV positive and the diabetic or the sportsmen can gain a lot from the healthy living (Gordon, Kaestner, Korenman & Abner, 2011). The foods we eat have to have all the essential nutrients that the body need. Examples of the nutrients the body need are fats, proteins, vitamins and minerals. The food we eat has to be able to provide a balanced supply of the nutrients named otherwise the body would develop side effect and sometime diseases. Normally the foods we eat provide the energy we use in that the body cells assimilate and break it down to provide energy, maintain life and encourage body growth (Bahl, 2015). Therefore to ensure food safety and food security, agencies like world food programme, Food and agriculture organization, international food and information council and international association for food protection have shared information online that help guide users on healthy eating methods, reliable foods and importance of food availability to the economy (Clapp, 2012). 2.3 Nutrition Nutrition is concerned with the biochemical sequence of the food we eat and how this food are transformed from one form to the other. However nutrition is also concerned with healthy living hence it focuses on the diseases and other conditions and problems that can be reduced or controlled through healthy eating habits (Mayoclinic.org, 2015). Nutrition is two ways in that both under and over nutrition lead to serious health problems. Poor nutrition is a recipe for malnutrition which is a health condition that normally affects the vulnerable in the society like children (Hackett, 2012). According to Hackett (2012) over-nutrition leads to obesity and some other chronic diseases that are currently on the rise due to urbanization, aging population especially in the western world and globalization of supply of food. In the fast economy countries, where the income is relatively favourable and food supply is reasonable, people tend to lack food discipline and end up eating unhealthy food. This is common due the access of cheap, tasty, surgery and convenient food availability in such countries (Who.int, 2015). 2.4 Key members of the society who need to proper information on food and nutrition The society we leave in has people of varied need and though balanced diet or proper nutrition is needed by everyone, to some people it’s a life and a death situation. For example the vulnerable in the society have to ensure that they take proper nutrition to stay strong, alive and healthy. Malnutrition effects like obesity are quite dominant amongst the children and the elderly due to such conditions (Healthy eating habit for children, 2015). Some disease like cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, post-polio syndrome, emotional eating, obesity, Hodgkin’s disease, hemochromatosis, metabolic syndrome, macular degeneration, cystic fibrosis, CFS, chronic bronchitis and iron deficiency are some of the diseases that could benefit from improved online health education (Medicinenet.com, 2015). In conclusion, though the internet is common as a source of information and news in many countries, it feel faces challenges especially in the third world countries where internet is a challenge to come by. Therefore the gap is wide but the introduction of the sophisticated internet installed programs in the modern phones is helping the situation by creating some balance. However a healthy society is a working society that is productive and efficient in whatever they do. Knowledge is power and the people need information on food and nutrition to live and create a sustainable environment. 3. Research Question Research aim: To determine the Influence of online educative sites on food and nutrition on the members of the society dietary choices. Significance of the research: The research is of importance to various stakeholders in that it will reflect the benefits that member of the society have gained from having knowledge of the availability of academic resources that advices on healthy eating habits and how people should be selective and knowledgeable about the food we consume due to their varying nutritional content. The following questions will guide the research: A. General question To determine the Influence of online educative sites on food and nutrition on the members of the society dietary choices. B. Specific questions I. To determine how important shared information in the internet on food and nutrition is important to the society members. II. To determine if the internet had improved society members access to information especially in regard to food and nutrition. III. To determine if the information the members of the society accessed online had influenced the life of the respondent or someone related to the respondent. The research questions are good for the project since they create guideline that analyses key areas of the project which are: internet influence, food and nutrition and diet choices. 4. Definition and Measurement of Key Concepts and Sub-questions Food: According to (Bittman, 2012) food is a nutritional substance that is either consumed by animal, man or plant with the purpose maintaining life and enhancing growth. Nutrition: Nutrition is the analysis of the biochemical content of food through relating the nutrient in food and their contribution to growth sustenance, reproduction, health and diseases in an organism (Mayoclinic.org, 2015). Balance diet: This is the food arrangement that is supposed to be consumed by a person to ensure the body perform properly (Di Daniele et al., 2012). 5. Research Design This study aims at finding how useful the food and nutrition information shared by various health aware bodies and academic experts share in the internet is important to the members of the society. The design that will be used in the research will be cross-sectional survey. A cross-sectional survey is the most appropriate research instrument as at the time of the study (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2007); in addition it will be handy as a survey method as the research is descriptive in nature as the data to be collected from the public who have used the internet to access food and nutrition information or anyone who has had the experience indirectly and resides in Northern Territorians, Australia. In light of the above the Cross-sectional survey approach is best suited as it will collect information from a sample of large population. The data collection is not selective and targets the entire general public. Data collection will be through both quantitative methods. This is because the research design under a cross-sectional study approach will require use of self-administered questionnaires and other methods such as face-to-face interviews, online surveys and telephone surveys as research instruments. The research is quantitative because the findings will be quoted in numerical representation such as frequency and percentages hence it is relevant in this case. The method is instrumental in quantifying attitude, opinion or behavior of a large population of people. The design is useful not only for the purpose of description but also to determine the relationships between variables at the time of study. While quantitative research tends to be conclusive by trying to quantify the problem and normally study it prevalent, qualitative has a broader exploratory approach that tend to dig into the situation where the researcher purely doesn’t know what to expect and is interested in developing a more dignified approach. Qualitative research therefore is used to solve much deeper issues and to explore on issues related to the same 6. Study Participants and Sampling Owing to the nature of this study, a representative sample was selected given that it would reflect an accurate and proportional representation of the population under the study. For this reason, randomization was used in picking the hospital, gyms and rehabilitation canters in which to carry out the research. Here, every hospital, gyms and rehabilitation centres have equal chance of participating in the research study. Stratified random sampling was the method used in the research. From the community, the hospital, gyms and rehabilitation were randomly selected from the available hospital, gyms and rehabilitation canters within the town. From the hospital, gyms and rehabilitation canters respondents were picked randomly from the employees and the patient and handed the questionnaire to guide them in answering the question. The research region will divided into geographical regions to act as strata and the respective hospital, gyms and rehabilitation canters will act as the sub-strata. The theoretical study population is the total number of the possible respondents within the area of study hence this is the total number of the patients and the workers. The Accessible study is the available positive workers and patients that will be available for data collection of the material day. Sampling frame is the complete list of the population we want to interview which is the employees of the randomly picked hospital, gyms and rehabilitation canters plus their patient during the period of data collection. The sampling method is ideal for the methodology indicated since it makes it easier to interpret the data quantitatively hence maintain the research design of the topic under study. 7. Ethics Throughout the research study, the researcher emphasized the importance of upholding the highest ethical issues in treating the information presented. This was done by imparting on them that information given would be treated as confidential; furthermore, their identities were protected. In addition, the researcher observed ethical procedures in handling the data whereby, no data was altered or falsified to suit the researcher’s ends. Suffice to say that the information was treated discretely and there was no bias (Bahl, 2015). The level of risk in this research project is low as the project doesn’t address any controversial issue but rather a general topic that is aimed at improving health. Social research like this normally experience three risks namely: i) the participant being targeted by other member of the society for their participation and this may lead to death, stress, guilt or unfair treatment; ii) the risk of professionalism in handling the knowledge available. Such risk include misrepresentation of the data, plagiarism, abuse of respondent confidentiality and deliberate failure to adhere to the regulations; and iii) finally community risk on matter that may interfere with the culture and belief of the society members. However I would like to indicate that the research was free of the named risk due to the acceptability of the issues the research is addressing. There the process of data collection and the other related procedures do not require any special arrangements to oversee (McGee, 2005). EUC ethical concern is interested in protecting the research participants through ensuring that the participant welfare and right is protected and respected. The research activities are therefore approved by EUC committee and they ensure that any research carried by human or human is directly or indirectly involved is aimed at looking for facts, employ the right knowledge and has a confirming relevant knowledge. They at the same time ensure that the research carried out has advantage to the intended people and adequately able to meet is desired aim (Bahl, 2015). 8. Data Collection Methods The data collection method will be dominantly self-administered questionnaire with questions structured in a clear manner to give the respondents enough opportunity to resolve the questions. The questionnaire will be supported by other data collection method such as face to face interviews or online surveys. The self-administered questionnaire is relevant in this case because the questions are understandable and it gives the respondent function the opportunity to speak his/her mind since they feel there is certain level of confidentiality and free from researcher pressure. Other methods such as face to face interview are also applicable and the same questions can be used to extract information from the respondent. The questionnaire will contain 12 questions with the first five questions general and aimed at giving the researcher more information about the researcher like age, education level, sex and occupation. The rest of the questions contain both close-ended and open-ended questions. The aim of the open-ended questions is to give the respondents opportunity to explain in details the stated questions. However the length of the questionnaire is designed so that it doesn’t take too much time of the respondent hence aimed at taking at most twenty minutes to respond sufficiently to all the questions. The questionnaires will be presented to the respondent in two different methods. This is due to the consideration of the location of the target group which is everywhere making accessibility limited. Therefore the researcher will approach the clients and have a small chart explaining aim of the data collection. The second method is use of internet to send the questionnaires which are then answered by the respondents. The self-administered questionnaire is applicable and suitable in this case since it makes it easy for the researcher to analyse the response in terms of percentage or frequency by grouping the response of the respondents. Self-administered questionnaires enjoy several advantages such as: i) it is practical in nature; ii) it is possible to collect large amount of information from different respondents within a relatively short time compared to other methods and a relatively affordable cost; iii) the data collection process does not necessarily need an expert hence validity and reliability of the information not affected by the person involved in the collection of data; iv) it easy and quicker to quantify information represented in the questionnaires which can either be done manually or using analysis software’s; and v) the information are possible to analyse more scientifically than other forms of research. However questionnaires also have disadvantages such as: i) it is challenging to determine how honest and truthful the respondent is while responding to the questions; ii) it is also difficult to measure level of seriousness and concentration respondent put while responding to the questions; iii) people read differently and respond different to questions hence the answers given on the questionnaire depends on the respondent’s own interpretation which doesn’t have to be right; iv) the questions are designed according to the researcher’s own understanding of the subject hence the possibility of respondent not having same view and answering same question may differ leading to unreliable answer; and v) some respondents are forgetful and may not thinking right during the responding time and this lead to misplaced response or totally wrong response. Reference Bahl, R. (2015). The evidence base for fat guidelines: a balanced diet. Open Heart, 2(1), e000229-e000229. Doi: 10.1136/openhrt-2014-000229 Batman, M. (2012). What Is Food? Opinionator. Retrieved 1 April 2015, from http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/05/what-is-food/?_r=0 Clapp, J. (2012). Food. Cambridge, England: Polity Press. Creswell, J., & Plano Clark, V. (2007). Designing and conducting mixed methods research. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: SAGE Publications. Di Daniele, N., Petramala, L., Di Renzo, L., Sarlo, F., Della Rocca, D., & Rizzo, M. et al. (2012). Body composition changes and cardiometabolic benefits of a balanced Italian Mediterranean Diet in obese patients with metabolic syndrome. Acta Diabetol, 50(3), 409-416. Doi: 10.1007/s00592-012-0445-7 EAT FOR HEALTH. (2013). Educator Guide, [online] 2(2), pp.4-66. Available at: https://www.eatforhealth.gov.au/sites/default/files/files/the_guidelines/n55b_eat_for_health_educators_guide.pdf [Accessed 9 Apr. 2015]. FOOD AND NUTRITION INFORMATION WEBSITES FOR TEACHER. (2011). NUTRITION AUSTRALIA, [online] 1(1), pp.23-56. Available at: https://www.google.com/search?q=australian+online+website+on+food+and+nutrition&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8 [Accessed 9 Apr. 2015]. Gordon, R., Kaestner, R., Korenman, S., & Abner, K. (2011). The Child and Adult Care Food Program: Who Is Served and Why? Social Service Review, 85(3), 359-400. Doi:10.1086/662607 Hackett, R. (2012). The IGD Best Practice Guide to communicating to consumers about a healthy, Balanced diet. Nutrition Bulletin, 37(1), 67-71. doi:10.1111/j.1467- 3010.2011.01944.x Healthy eating habit for children. (2015). Australian dietery Guideline, [online] 5(4), p.36. Available at: https://www.eatforhealth.gov.au/sites/default/files/files/the_guidelines/n55f_children_bro chure.pdf [Accessed 9 Apr. 2015]. Mayoclinic.org, (2015). Nutrition and healthy eating Nutrition basics - Mayo Clinic. Retrieved 1 April 2015, from http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/nutrition-and-healthy- eating/basics/healthy-diets/hlv-20049477 Morgan, K. (2015). Why Is Credibility of Online Sources Important in Education? Everyday Life – Global Post. Retrieved 1 April 2015, from http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/credibility- online-sources-important-education-7012.html Rosenstiel, T., Mitchell, A., Purcell, K., & Rainie, L. (2011). Part 5: The role of the internet. Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project. Retrieved 1 April 2015, from http://www.pewinternet.org/2011/09/26/part-5-the-role-of-the-internet/ Who.int, (2015). PMNCH | PMNCH Knowledge Summary #18 Nutrition. Retrieved 1 April 2015, from http://www.who.int/pmnch/knowledge/publications/summaries/knowledge_summaries_1 8_nutrition/en/ Read More